Notes:

NEW YORK — Even though millions of young people have managed to acquire it, Led Zeppelin remains an acquired taste. The British rock quartet, which this week opened a run of six long-since sold- out shows at Madison Square Gardens, makes a monstrously loud, deliberately abrasive kind of music far removed not only from the sweet rustlings of classical music, jazz and Tin Pan Alley, but even from the tuneful, rhythmically enlivening rock songs of the 1960s.

That said, this was the best Led Zeppelin show this observer has ever heard, and that includes the sound track from the group's recent concert film. It was certainly superior to the 1975 Garden shows, the last the band had given in New York. That time the guitarist, Jimmy Page, had an injured finger. Since then Led Zeppelin has been off the road, waiting for the singer, Robert Plant, to recover from first an auto accident and then a throat infection.

This tour amounts to a re-assertion of the band's preeminence in the fickle youth market of America, and on its own terms the opening show was certainly a triumphant reassertion. It lasted three hours and included some 18 songs, depending on how you count — a Led Zeppelin "song" is often an excuse for a meandering instrumental that sucks in all sorts of extraneous material as it goes along and sometimes segues subtly into something altogether different.

The repertory included much that was predictable, from "The Song Remains the Same" to "Stairway to Heaven" by way of "In My Time of Dying" (dedicated somewhat wickedly to Queen Elizabeth n and her Silver Jubilee): "The Battle of Evermore" (was also dedicated to the British monarch). "No Quarter," "Kashmir," "Achilles Last Stand" and others, But there was also an acoustic set that lightened the heavy-metal load.

The mood of the Garden concert, offstage and on, seemed fresher and less hostile than some Led Zeppelin concerts and crowds of yore. The audience waited more or less docilely for 70 minutes past the scheduled starting time before the band appeared. When it did so, the mood of the musicians was good-natured and almost puckish. And Plant laudably and earnestly attempted to discourage the hurling of firecrackers and cherry bombs.

Quite apart from its sheer massiveness and its mood, this was a first-class Led Zeppelin performance on several objective criteria. Plant's voice sounded fresh throughout, but especially during the acoustic portion, in "Going to California." And it was aided by a whole battery of echo and filter effects.

Similarly Page's guitar playing, always concerned with coloristic exploration was positively kaleidoscopic in that respect. And his work along with everybody else's was projected forcefully and clearly by the sound system. The other two held up their ends, too. (J. Rockwell, 7.2.77)

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Comments

Submit your personal review of a particular show you attended, updates, corrections, etc., which will be considered for addition to the official online archive.You may also contact the webmaster at: webmaster@ledzeppelin.com

I was only was only 14 when I saw Zep for the first and only time Thank god for my older brother john who took me to see them. I also remember Jimmy Page hurting his finger from the m80s that fans tossed on stage. They stoped the concert for a few minutes and page came out with a bandage on his hand started playing Whole lotta Love! Great concert. I will never forget it.